This invention relates to an upper lid alignment apparatus for hatchback reaction cabin and particularly to an auxiliary alignment apparatus to facilitate accurate alignment of an upper lid on a table of the reaction cabin.
In semiconductor manufacturing industry and other precision production industries, there is a need to use small size cabin or chamber to perform some special process or to produce goods in a small batch. The cabin being used usually has a table and an upper lid to form a sealed compartment inside. The upper lid may be removable or a hatchback type which may be partly lifted. Hatchback upper lid may be operated easily with mechanical arm and free a lot of human intervention, hence has been widely used.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional reaction cabin equipped with a hatchback upper lid. The cabin has a table 1 and a upper lid 5 (shown by broken line) to form a reaction chamber inside. A mechanical arm 3 is used to lift and open the upper lid 5. The mechanical arm 3 has a pair of beams 35 fastened to the upper lid 5 at one end. Another ends of the beams 35 are pivotally engaged with a shaft 37. Each beam 35 further attaches a lever which is pivotally engaged with a hydraulic cylinder 31. When the hydraulic cylinder 31 is activated, the beams 35 may be turned about the shaft 37 to lift the upper lid 5 from the table 1 or to close the upper lid 5 upon the table 1. Once the upper lid 5 is lifted and the cabin is opened, material charge, discharge, or maintenance work may be performed inside the cabin.
For closing the upper lid 5, there is a bordering plank 11 located in a side wall of the table 1 to guide and align the upper lid 5 fit on the table 1 accurately without drifting sideward.
For cabin maintenance, the upper lid 5 rectification is an essential step. To do the rectification, the upper lid 5 should firstly be laid and covered on the table 1. Then at least two rectification pins 13 shall be used to pass through the through holes 51 formed in the upper lid 5 and be inserted into rectification bores 15 formed in the table 1. If the rectification pins 13 cannot fit into the rectification bores 15, it means the alignment of the upper lid 5 and the table 1 is not correct. Then a minor adjustment must be made on the fastening of the upper lid 5 and the beams 35. When the minor adjustment set forth above cannot fix it, the adjustment screw 39 for the shaft 37 should be unwound and to move the shaft 37 to a new position so that the upper lid 5 has correct alignment with the table 1 until all the rectification pins 13 may fit into the rectification bores 15, then the adjustment screw 39 will be tighten to fix the shaft 37 the new-position. It is a tedious and time consuming process. For instance, to do this in an Endura(copyright) PVD system, it could take thirty minutes. It greatly impacts production process and efficiency. Furthermore, the constant opening and closing of the upper lid 5 during production process makes the alignment requirement happen frequently. It has ill effect on productivity and production yield.
It is an object this invention to provide an upper lid alignment apparatus for hatchback reaction cabin that can promptly and accurately align the upper lid with the table of the cabin so that wearing and misallocation of the upper lid against the table may be reduced, and productivity and quality of the goods processed in the cabin may be enhanced. For instance, electroplating of film using the Endura(copyright) PVD workstation may have higher quality.
The apparatus according to this invention includes at least three sets of mating means which use triangle geometric relationship to define and facilitate plane alignment between the upper lid and the table of a reaction cabin. Each mating means has an active member located on the upper lid mating and engaging with a receiving member located on the table. The receiving member has a guide slope and an anchor spot to easily nudge the active member resting on a desirable location so that the upper lid may have required alignment with the table.
In one aspect, the active member has a protrudent bar, stub and the like on a side wall of the upper lid. The receiving member may have a crutch receiving notch with two slant edges as the guide slope and a bottom recess as the anchor spot.
In another aspect, the active member may be located on the table and the receiving member may be located on the upper lid.
This invention aims at making the upper lid and the table to have a closed contact on a plane. As it takes at least three points to define a plane, it is preferably to have at least three sets of this invention in a given cabin. However some type of cabin already have upper lid alignment feature similar to this invention, in such an occasion, the number of those feature may be made complementary to this invention and be counted into the number of three set forth above.